teacher not wanting to return. what do i say?

Hi all, I'm getting quite confused about what to tell my boss. I am a primary teacher and 12 weeks pregnant, have to tell my head this week as I have a scan and need to take time out. Have been at this school for 4 years.

I have decided that I definitely do not want to return to my job after birth/maternity leave as I want to re-train in a new career anyway. I have read loads about what I am entitiled to maternity pay wise but getting quite confused about what to say to my head.

If I tell him that I won't be coming back am I still entitled to SMP as usual (without the extra bit that they can claw back) or will he just say that I am resigning and stop my pay at the end of the school term?

I was in exactly the same situation when I was pg. I went along with the pretence that I was returning to work after my baby was born but would take full maternity leave.When my maternity leave was nearing its end I went in and discussed my situation with my AHT. I felt bad about it as they couldn't appoint a new member of staff until I had officially resigned but I had worked there for a long time and had earned my rights I felt.If you lay your cards on the table now you could compromise yourself. You may change your mind or your circumstances may change. Why burn bridges before you have to?They will know that you are pg so the class you are given next year will be chosen accordingly anyway. You cannot take responsibility beyond that.Don't take away your opportunity to change your mind until you have to.

I'm not sure about maternity pay but I do know that you are under no obligation to tell them until you are 25 weeks. You do not need to tell them what your scan appointment is for, just say it is a hospital appointment. That may buy you some time to research your entitlements more clearly. Hopefully someone else will be along soon to clarify what these are..

You are entitled to paid maternity leave in the same way as anyone else. You can either resign for maternity reasons straight away (which I did once, mainly because I was moving to the other end of the country) or you can leave your options open (which I did the second time, even though I was pretty sure I wouldn't be returning - I resigned when DD was three months old, but that was just to give them as much notice as possible, and it didn't affect my maternity pay at all).

Would echo those that say don't commit yourself to leaving yet. Not wanting to be negative, but if you lost the baby you might want to return to work (I know people who have been in this situation) or if your DP/DH lost his job this could influence you too.

However, you do not need to tell them of your intention to leave employment just yet.

Legally however, you are only required to give notice of your intention to return to work or leave employment, 8 weeks before the end of your Mat leave.

I would suggest that you tell your head, that it is very unlikely that you shall be returning to your post, but you would like to see how things go & will contact him/her as soon as a decision is made.

I would also add from first hand experience, that it is very easy to go from full time to part time if you are already in a school, but Part-time positions are like goldust atm, so don't burn your bridges just yet!

Definitely don't burn your bridges! You have no clue how you will feel about your life and your career after the baby is born. Now is not the time to be making big decisions about it. Wait, enjoy your pregnancy and your new baby and then have a rethink when you get to the point when you HAVE to notify them.

Agree with what others have said about keeping your options open, at least at this stage.

I would also repeat the advice from a pp that you don't have to tell them yet if you don't wish to. I'm 16 weeks now and for my 12-week scan I just said it was a hospital appointment, then told them afterwards. I didn't want to tell them before as I probably wouldn't have wanted people knowing if something had been wrong at the scan.